Dear friends: I am breaking the silence which has been my refuge during these days. I hope you will understand the delay and forgive me for it. It has not been in any way easy to confront the loss of my brother. Far less so in these conditions. Expecting the outcome has not lessened the blow.

René and his brother Roberto. The photo was taken in Miami, in October 2011, shortly after René, a Hero of the Republic of Cuba, left the Marianna prison after being incarcerated for 13 years. Photo: Courtesy of the family/CubaDebate.

Thank you for your messages of encouragement, which have made me feel accompanied in these special circumstances. They have animated me in the return to the struggle, to which the spirit and memory of Roberto call me. He never gave up; those of us who remain in the debt to honor his memory will not do so. For me, who became aware of my own existence alongside him and who shared so many things with him, it will always be a motive for pride to be able to say that I was his brother. For all of you, all my gratitude and an embrace. René González Sehwerert, June 26, 2012 (Editor’s Note.—Roberto González, an eminent lawyer who devoted the last years of his life to the cause for the liberation of his brother René and the other four Cuban anti-terrorists who are serving unjust sentences in the U.S., died in Havana on June 22, a victim of cancer.) GRANMA